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Damon let himself in quietly through the upstairs window, easing the sash back down after himself carefully so it wouldn’t squeak. Then he turned around and nearly ran into Stefan, who was standing in the hall clad only in sweatpants and a frown.
“What?” Damon asked him defensively. Couldn’t a guy run out for a midnight snack without everyone getting on his case?
“If you’ve been out,” Stefan began slowly, “then who—“ He glanced back at Damon’s bedroom and they both heard the moan at the same time, inaudible at this distance except to vampire ears.
Immediately they whooshed into the room to see Daisy tossing and turning in Damon’s bed. Stefan scanned the room for threats even as Damon explained to him, “She’s having a nightmare.”
Daisy started to roll towards the edge of the bed and Stefan instinctively moved to catch her. Damon blocked him. “No, don’t touch her. Daisy, wake up. Daisy!”
Daisy’s eyes flew open with a gasp and she looked around for a moment, disoriented. Then she saw Damon and smiled.
“Go away,” Damon told his brother, missing Stefan’s expression that clearly wondered why he bothered doing nice things for certain people. Damon didn’t care anyway. “Shut the door,” he added without looking back, approaching the bed warily. “Are you really awake now?” he asked her.
She curled back up in bed and closed her eyes. “Mm-hmm,” she claimed sleepily, which didn’t exactly fill him with confidence.
He sat down on the edge of the mattress gingerly and she cuddled up against him. “You’re not going to knock me into the wall?”
“When have I ever done that?” she mumbled in annoyance.
“Well you might have tonight, if I’d been here,” he pointed out.
Daisy wrapped her arms around his waist suddenly, unbalancing him. “I don’t have bad dreams when you’re here!” she revealed. Damon’s gaze sharpened on her, wondering if fatigue had made her less guarded or if she was just joking. “You’re my giant teddy bear,” she added, squeezing him.
Damon let out a bark of laughter. “My G-d, no one has ever called me that in my life.” And he wasn’t sure if he liked it.
Daisy tugged on him. “Gonna lay down? Tired.”
“Okay, okay.” He took his shoes off and tossed them out of the way—because it wasn’t cool to trip and fall on your face when you were trying to make a vampire-speed exit—and draped his jacket across the foot of the bed before joining her under the blankets. “Was it about dogs again?” he wanted to know.
She nodded against him. “Scary.”
“You have a very skewed sense of scary,” he declared. “Maybe you should see a professional about this phobia. Don’t mention the vampire boyfriend part, though. Mental wards don’t have convenient visiting hours.”
Daisy pinched him and he actually felt it. “’Nuf talking.”
“Fine.” He waited until she was almost asleep, then growled in her ear, trying to imitate a dog. She pinched him again, in a more sensitive location. “Ow! I thought you wanted to sleep, not play,” he said innocently.
She rolled away from him as a last-ditch effort and he scooted after her, determined to be quiet. For two hours, at least. Then he might wake her back up. Had to give Stefan something better to listen to than a nightmare.